Kaduna: Crippling Tertiary Education With Exorbitant Fees
BY SIMON REEF MUSA
The last is yet to be heard over the increase in fees for Kaduna state owned tertiary schools in Kaduna. Not only has the administration of Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai adamant in reviewing the fees becoming impossible, parents of the enraged students are still battling harsh economic forces.
In the last two weeks, students of the Kaduna State University met with the Kaduna State Deputy Governor, Dr (Mrs) Hadiza Balarabe and other senior officials of the el-Rufai administration to plead for a review of the almost 500% increase recently approved for the state university and other tertiary schools. Shockingly, the students were told to return to their colleagues and inform them that the new rates were in their interest. How does an increase in school fees from N26, 000 to almost N150, 000 be in the interest of the students when some of them were even finding it difficult to pay the old rate?
The reality is that many students who can’t afford the new rates may soon be forced to withdraw from the university or relocate to other schools with cheaper rates. With many state workers sacked and farmers deserting their farms as a result of banditry and kidnappings, it is obvious that students from poorer homes can’t afford these fees.
It is inscrutable that our present leaders who enjoyed free education are now proponents of increased fees for public universities. If some rich parents are capable of paying N500k to send their children/wards to private primary schools, is that a reason to jack up registration fees in our tertiary schools? The new KASU fees is an attempt to deny children of the poor university education. I am sure that if such exorbitant fees had been imposed during their time, most of these leaders now playing God would have been confined to the drudgery of farm work or some menial jobs.
I can bet with my life that with the new fees, less than 30 percent may return to register. If that happens, then the need to reduce the strength of both academic and non-academic staff may become inevitable. So, those who keep silent in the face of the virulent oppressive fees introduced in Kaduna’s tertiary school better wait awhile to have a taste of their travail. In attempting to defend the new fees, someone resorted to posting registration fees for different courses as obtained in a public university in the South-east. I think it is not sensible to compare the two as the contexts and capacities to bear the financial burdens by parents are different. If some parents can’t pay the old rate of N26, 000, is it the N150k they can pay?
With members of the execute arm unwavering in their determination to unleash the new fees, this week the beleaguered students took their problems to the premises of the Kaduna State House of Assembly where they pleaded with the state lawmakers to intervene. Not one lawmaker was bold enough to come out and address the students.
Rationalising the silence of these lawmakers on a matter that is so crucial may determine the fate of many tertiary schools in Kaduna. In a country where the children of the elite are comfortable in private universities and foreign ivory towers, the battle to have these fees reviewed is mostly seen as only a battle that is too herculean to be won.
Last week, I had a discussion with a lecturer in one of the state’s tertiary schools on the likely fallout of the increase. He minced no words in telling me that darker days for university and tertiary education for residents or indigenes of the state look bleak. If these students, mostly from poor homes, could pay less than N30, 000 in the past, where is the miracle that will make them pay N100, 000 to N150, 000 per session?
Indeed, democracy for most Kaduna people has been a tormenting hell on earth. Unlike some of the states that are considering reviewing school fees to cushion the impacts of COVID-19, Kaduna only sees the gains in reviewing school fees upward as means of getting more money for the government to spend. Providing for the masses and carrying them along to survive the harsh economic realities is far from the dream of the administration that has demolished homes, market stalls and engaged the electorate in an arrogant posture. Democracy is all about pursuing policies for the common good. I wonder in what way(s) and manner the common good is served when students are denied the opportunity to complete their tertiary education.
I wish to remind the administration of Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai that education is a social service and not a profitable venture. It is obvious that having enjoyed university education in his time, it is advisable for him not to truncate the university education of many students who can’t pay. I am aware that there were times the government had tinkered with the idea of providing loans to enable students to pay their tuition fees. I don’t know what has happened to that programme. That many banks in Kaduna now do not grant loans to civil servants over security of jobs, facilitating bank loans for students who do not have any prospects of getting a job after graduation renders such loan programmes dead on arrival (DOA).
No one knowledgeable in the present sufferings unleashed by the masses can justify this increase in school fees. All hands must be on deck to ensure that children of the poor have access to university education. If we do not stand up in defence of education for our youths, future generations shall describe us as collaborating silent voices that gave their full acquiescence to the upward review of fees.
I think the biggest problem of the Kaduna State Government is misplacement of priorities. Against outcries of financial paucity, the government announced that it was embarking on providing free uniforms to 120, 552 students at a whopping cost of nearly half a billion naira.
For a state government that has not paid pensions and still owes some workers salaries for the month of April, deploying such a humongous amount cannot be justified. Creating a conducive atmosphere for parents to be responsible for the upkeep of their children should be the focus of the government. Providing free uniforms and food for students after sending their parents out of jobs and demolishing their makeshift stalls for daily businesses does not make any sense.
It was obvious that before 2015, these students were not going to school naked and hungry. Having witnessed the foibles of the Kaduna State Government in the last six years, it is apparent that education does not confer competence on leaders to advance the societies they govern. The best way around the problem is engaging the people in finding solutions to issues that are common to people.
